Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Kyurem
34/101 (Noble Victories)
Ok, if Zekrom and
Reshiram weren’t enough to
convince you that Pokémon card designers
love the
Unova Dragons, then this
card should just about do it. Enter
Kyurem, the last of the three Legendary Dragons
from Black and White.
Unsurprising, Kyurem has a
lot in common with the other Dragons. The HP is still
absurdly high for a Basic at 130, there is that
sometimes problematic Retreat cost of two (Energyless
Dragons hate being dragged out with Catcher), and it has
the extremely useful Outrage attack that can dish out
severe punishment to any Pokémon that damages it short
of a OHKO. On top of this it has probably the best
Weakness in the game: thanks to its cousin
Reshiram, you are very
unlikely to see many Metal Type
Pokémon at a tournament right now. Where
Kyurem does differ from the
other Dragons is in its second attack. While both
Reshiram and
Zekrom deal huge damage to
the active, Kyurem takes a
slightly more subtle approach: Glaciate costs [W][W][C]
and does 30 damage to each of your opponent’s Pokémon.
That may not seem as immediately impressive as
Reshi and
Zekrom but it does have two
things going for it. Firstly, the attack has no
drawback: no self-damage, no Energy discarding, no
nothing. Secondly, Glaciate actually has the potential
to do even more
damage than the other Dragons with a single attack: if
your opponent has a full Bench,
Kyurem is doing 6 x 30 =180 damage. That’s 50%
more than either Reshi or
Zekrom can manage! When you
consider that there is also Energy acceleration out
there for Kyurem (it can use
Feraligatr Prime like
Reshiram uses Ability
Emboar), you begin to see
the possibilities for this card. It might not be able to
trade OHKOs with high HP actives, but it can take
several Prizes in one go with just a few turns of
Glaciate, while Baby Pokémon and very weak Basics like
Solosis will be taken down
with one attack.
Kyurem
is undoubtedly the most powerful spread Pokémon that the
game has ever seen, the question is, can it be a force
in a metagame which seems to
be all about speed and one-shot knock outs? There are
definitely ways of countering
Kyurem: cutting off its acceleration by dragging
out and KOing
Feraligatr is one way,
another is to play Ability
Serperior to all but nullify the damage from
Glaciate. Finally, the Noble Victories set includes a
very playable hard counter to
Kyurem in the shape of
Cobalion. The key to making
Kyurem work will likely be in building a deck
that is durable and consistent enough to deal with these
challenges, as well as the threat of OHKOs from the
other Dragons.
In other words, I think that creating a successful
Kyurem deck is going to take
a bit more than simply digging out the
Gatr Primes from the binder.
It’s too good a Pokémon not to see play, but it’s going
to take some skills to realise the full potential of a
spread deck in the current format.
Rating
Modified: 4 (tournament calibre for sure – I’m expecting
some interesting and very powerful decks with this card)
Limited 4.75 (super hard to KO, this thing can spread
its way to four Prizes in a couple of turns and Outrage
will deal with any persistent threat)
|
Mad Mattezhion
Professor Bathurst League Australia |
Kyurem (Noble Victories)
Hey Pojo fans, we have a real treat for you today.
I've been waiting for this card ever since I saw it
previewed. Today's review is dedicated to none other
than the third Tao Dragom, Kyurem!
Kyurem is a lovely Water type Basic with 130 HP,
Weakness to Metal, a retreat cost of 2 and two attacks.
The benefits of having 130 HP as well as being able to
use Revive are well known, and the attraction of both
the type (energy acceleration from Feraligatr Prime as
well as the ability to hit Reshiram and Donphan for
Weakness) and the obscure Weakness (ReshiPhlosion has
destroyed all Metal type Poke'mon) is immense. So far,
Kyurem has the best stats of the three Unova Dragons.
Now the attacks. Outrage is well known and has the same
costs and benefits as it does on the other 2 cards. At
[c][c] for 20 damage plus 10 more for each damage
counter on Kyurem, it's a great fallback option for when
the second attack fails and it's even better for
discouraging your opponent from dealing small
incremental damage, forcing your opponent to go for the
1HKO!
The second attack is Glaciate, which is a departure from
the Bolt Strike and Blue Flare of the other Dragons but
in keeping with the video game attacks. For [w][w][c]
Kyurem will deal 30 damage to each of your opponent's
Poke'mon (not applying Weakness and Resistance for the
Bench, of course). I don't know about you, but the idea
of massive spread and type advantage gives me goosebumps!
Now, Glaciate lacks the punch to take out a big target
quickly so Kyurem, unlike its bretheren, is a combo
piece rather than the focus of a deck. The first partner
that comes to mind is Feraligatr Prime, as not only do
you get energy acceleration but after you use Glaciate
once or twice, you can use Feraligatr's Hydro Crunch
attack to wipe out any important, wounded targets (Hydro
Crucnh deals 60 damage plus 10 more for each damage
counter already on the Defending Poke'mon).
If you are going to use Feraligatr, you would do well to
throw in Blastoise UL or Entei & Suicune Legend. Both
Poke'mon have suffered in the past because while they
can deal 100 damage to a Benched target with
Feraligatr's Rain Dance to help pay the heavy energy
cost, they both fall short of getting a 1HKO on the big
bench sitters like Magnezone Prime, Typhlosion Prime and
FanBoar. Also, both Poke'mon have a Lightning Weakness,
which has been a major stumbling block to tournament
succes. Kyurem helps to solve both of these problems by
acting as a big body to absorb damage from Zekrom and
friends while also using Glaciate to soften up targets
before Blastoise/Entei & Suicune Legend land the killing
blow.
Spekaing of sniping, Kingdra Prime works well with
Kyurem by boosting the spread damage even further, while
Kyurem works well with Kingdra by covering the Lightning
and Fire Weakness (it feels just a little
counterintuitive to have a Water Poke'mon that can't
hurt Fire Poke'mon doesn't it?). With Kyurem up front
and all of this support on the Bench, maybe Rain Dance
will finally break through to the top level!
However, Rain Dance archetypes aren't the only place
where Kyurem could fit. As I mentioned above, Kingdra
fits well with Kyurem but it doesn't fit quite so well
with Rain Dance builds, mainly because it is yet another
Stage 2 in an already crowded deck (although it doesn't
synergise very well with the energy acceleration
either). However, Kingdra fits very well with Yanmega
Prime, which interestingly enough also has a tough time
dealing with Zekrom and Reshiram due to only having 110
HP and a maximum unboosted output of 70 damage a turn.
With Kyurem, Kingdra and Yanmega together you have a
powerful capability for spread and sniping with better
type matchups, as well as a little room to play with for
specialty cards. Donpahn Prime seems like a good
inclusion for a little more oomph against the Active
Poke'mon, and if you use Thunderus or Tornadus you could
get a lot of mileage out of Eviolite as well. If you
happen to have the cards kicking around in your
collection, why not try them out?
I'm sure there are other combos out there, and the fact
that Outrage is Colourless means you can splash any of
the Unova Dragons to act as a wall that bites back so
having your choices for type coverage increased can only
be a good thing. Get your hands on a playset as soon as
possible!
Modified: 5 (maybe Kyurem will finally make Rain Dance a
viable archetype and maybe it won't but I can definitely
see people playing the icy beast just to use Outrage
against Reshiram and Donphan, even without the potential
to abuse Glaciate)
Limited: 4 (there are several other big Basics in this
set, including Vrizion with Water Resistance, Cobalion
which hits for Weakness and Druddigon which will punish
Kyurem heavily with Rough Skin, but Big Blue is still a
great pick and th spread is awesome if you can avoid
being Knocked Out in the meant time)
Combos with: Feraligatr Prime, Kingdra Prime, Blastoise
UL, Entei & Suicune Legend, Yanmega Prime, any deck with
energy acceleration that can be exploited by Colourless
attacks
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